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THE BALKANS
A HISTORYOF BULGARIA—SERBIA—
GREECE—RUMANIA—TURKEY
THE BALKANS
A HISTORYOF BULGARIA—SERBIA—
GREECE—RUMANIA—TURKEY
BY NEVILL FORBES, ARNOLD J.
TOYNBEE, D. MITRANY, D.G. HOGARTH
PREFACE
The authors of this volume have not worked in conjunction. Widely separated,
engaged on other duties, and pressed for time, we have had no opportunity for
interchange of views. Each must be held responsible, therefore, for his own section
alone. If there be any discrepancies in our writings (it is not unlikely in so disputed a
field of history) we can only regret an unfortunate result ofthe circumstances. Owing
to rapid change in the relations of our country to the several Balkan peoples, the tone
of a section written earlier may differ from that of another written later. It may be well
to state that the sections on Serbia and Bulgaria were finished before the decisive
Balkan developments ofthe past two months. Those on Greece and Rumania
represent only a little later stage ofthe evolution. That on Turkey, compiled between
one mission abroad and another, was the latest to be finished.
If our sympathies are not all the same, or given equally to friends and foes, none of us
would find it possible to indite a Hymn of Hate about any Balkan people. Every one
of these peoples, on whatever side he be fighting to-day, has a past worthy of more
than our respect and interwoven in some intimate way with our history. That any one
of them is arrayed against us to-day is not to be laid entirely or chiefly at its own door.
They are all fine peoples who have not obtained their proper places in the sun. The
best ofthe Osmanli nation, the Anatolian peasantry, has yet to make its physical and
moral qualities felt under civilized conditions. As for the rest—the Serbs and the
Bulgars, who have enjoyed brief moments of barbaric glory in their past, have still to
find themselves in that future which shall be to the Slav. The Greeks, who were old
when we were not as yet, are younger now than we. They are as incalculable a factor
in a political forecast as another Chosen Race, the Jews. Their past is the world's
glory: the present in the Near East is theirs more than any people's: the future—
despite the laws of corporate being and decline, dare we say they will have no part in
it? Of Rumania what are we to think? Her mixed people has had the start ofthe
Balkan Slavs in modern civilization, and evidently her boundaries must grow wider
yet. But the limits of her possible expansion are easier to set than those ofthe rest.
We hope we have dealt fairly with all these peoples. Mediaeval history, whether ofthe
East or the West, is mostly a record of bloodshedding and cruelty; and the Middle Age
has been prolonged to our own time in most parts ofthe Balkans, and is not yet over
in some parts. There are certain things salutary to bear in mind when we think or
speak of any part of that country to-day. First, that less than two hundred years ago,
England had its highwaymen on all roads, and its smuggler dens and caravans,
Scotland its caterans, and Ireland its moonlighters. Second, that religious fervour has
rarely mitigated and generally increased our own savagery. Thirdly, that our own
policy in Balkan matters has been none too wise, especially of late. In permitting the
Treaty of Bucarest three years ago, we were parties to making much ofthe trouble that
has ensued, and will ensue again. If we have not been able to write about the Near
East under existing circumstances altogether sine ira et studio, we have tried to
remember that each of its peoples has a case.
D.G. HOGARTH.
November, 1915.
CONTENTS
BULGARIA AND SERBIA. By NEVILL FORBES.
1. Introductory
2. The Balkan Peninsula in Classical Times 400 B.C. - A.D. 500
3. The Arrival ofthe Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula, A.D. 500-650
BULGARIA.
4. The Arrival ofthe Bulgars in the Balkan Peninsula,
600-700
5. The Early Years of Bulgaria and the Introduction of
Christianity, 700-893
6. The Rise and Fall ofthe First Bulgarian Empire, 893-972
7. The Rise and Fall of 'Western Bulgaria' and the Greek
Supremacy, 963-1186
8. The Rise and Fall ofthe Second Bulgarian Empire, 1186-1258
9. The Serbian Supremacy and the Final Collapse, 1258-1393
10. The Turkish Dominion and the Emancipation, 1393-1878
11. The Aftermath, and Prince Alexander of Battenberg, 1878-86
12. The Regeneration under Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, 1886-1908
13. The Kingdom, 1908-13
SERBIA.
14. The Serbs under Foreign Supremacy, 650-1168 15. The Rise and Fall ofthe
Serbian Empire and the Extinction of Serbian Independence, 1168-1496 16. The
Turkish Dominion, 1496-1796 17. The Liberation of Serbia under Kara-George
(1804-13) and Milo[)s] Obrenovi['c] (1815-30): 1796-1830 18. The Throes of
Regeneration: Independent Serbia, 1830-1903 19. Serbia, Montenegro, and the Serbo-
Croats in Austria-Hungary, 1903-8 20. Serbia and Montenegro, and the two Balkan
Wars, 1908-13
GREECE. By ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE.
1. From Ancient to Modern Greece 2. The Awakening ofthe Nation 3. The
Consolidation ofthe State
RUMANIA: HER HISTORY AND POLITICS. By D. MITRANY
1. Introduction 2. Formation ofthe Rumanian Nation 3. The Foundation and
Development ofthe Rumanian Principalities 4. The Phanariote Rule 5. Modern Period
to 1866 6. Contemporary Period: Internal Development 7. Contemporary Period:
Foreign Affairs 8. Rumania and the Present War
TURKEY. By D. G. HOGARTH
1. Origin ofthe Osmanlis 2. Expansion ofthe Osmanli Kingdom 3. Heritage and
Expansion ofthe Byzantine Empire 4. Shrinkage and Retreat 5. Revival 6. Relapse 7.
Revolution 8. The Balkan War 9. The Future
INDEX
MAPS
The Balkan Peninsula: Ethnological
The Balkan Peninsula
The Ottoman Empire
BULGARIA AND SERBIA
1
Introductory
The whole of what may be called the trunk or massif ofthe Balkan peninsula, bounded
on the north by the rivers Save and Danube, on the west by the Adriatic, on the east by
the Black Sea, and on the south by a very irregular line running from Antivari (on the
coast ofthe Adriatic) and the lake of Scutari in the west, through lakes Okhrida and
Prespa (in Macedonia) to the outskirts of Salonika and thence to Midia on the shores
of the Black Sea, following the coast ofthe Aegean Sea some miles inland, is
preponderatingly inhabited by Slavs. These Slavs are the Bulgarians in the east and
centre, the Serbs and Croats (or Serbians and Croatians or Serbo-Croats) in the west,
and the Slovenes in the extreme north-west, between Trieste and the Save; these
nationalities compose the southern branch ofthe Slavonic race. The other inhabitants
of the Balkan peninsula are, to the south ofthe Slavs, the Albanians in the west, the
Greeks in the centre and south, and the Turks in the south-east, and, to the north, the
Rumanians. All four of these nationalities are to be found in varying quantities within
the limits ofthe Slav territory roughly outlined above, but greater numbers of them are
outside it; on the other hand, there are a considerable number of Serbs living north of
the rivers Save and Danube, in southern Hungary. Details ofthe ethnic distribution
and boundaries will of course be gone into more fully later; meanwhile attention may
be called to the significant fact that the name of Macedonia, the heart ofthe Balkan
peninsula, has been long used by the French gastronomers to denote a dish, the
principal characteristic of which is that its component parts are mixed up into quite
inextricable confusion.
Of the three Slavonic nationalities already mentioned, the two first, the Bulgarians and
the Serbo-Croats, occupy a much greater space, geographically and historically, than
the third. The Slovenes, barely one and a half million in number, inhabiting the
Austrian provinces of Carinthia and Carniola, have never been able to form a political
state, though, with the growth of Trieste as a great port and the persistent efforts of
Germany to make her influence if not her flag supreme on the shores ofthe Adriatic,
this small people has from its geographical position and from its anti-German (and
anti-Italian) attitude achieved considerable notoriety and some importance.
Of the Bulgars and Serbs it may be said that at the present moment the former control
the eastern, and the latter, in alliance with the Greeks, the western half ofthe
peninsula. It has always been the ambition of each of these three nationalities to
dominate the whole, an ambition which has caused endless waste of blood and money
and untold misery. If the question were to be settled purely on ethnical considerations,
Bulgaria would acquire the greater part ofthe interior of Macedonia, the most
numerous ofthe dozen nationalities of which is Bulgarian in sentiment if not in origin,
and would thus undoubtedly attain the hegemony ofthe peninsula, while the centre of
gravity ofthe Serbian nation would, as is ethnically just, move north-westwards.
Political considerations, however, have until now always been against this solution of
the difficulty, and, even if it solved in this sense, there would still remain the problem
of the Greek nationality, whose distribution along all the coasts ofthe Aegean, both
European and Asiatic, makes a delimitation ofthe Greek state on purely ethnical lines
virtually impossible. It is curious that the Slavs, though masters ofthe interior ofthe
peninsula and of parts of its eastern and western coasts, have never made the shores of
the Aegean (the White Sea, as they call it) or the cities on them their own. The
Adriatic is the only sea on the shore of which any Slavonic race has ever made its
home. In view of this difficulty, namely, the interior ofthe peninsula being Slavonic
while the coastal fringe is Greek, and ofthe approximately equal numerical strength of
all three nations, it is almost inevitable that the ultimate solution ofthe problem and
delimitation of political boundaries will have to be effected by means of territorial
compromise. It can only be hoped that this ultimate compromise will be agreed upon
by the three countries concerned, and will be more equitable than that which was
forced on them by Rumania in 1913 and laid down in the Treaty of Bucarest of that
year.
If no arrangement on a principle of give and take is made between them, the road to
the East, which from the point of view ofthe Germanic powers lies through Serbia,
will sooner or later inevitably be forced open, and the independence, first of Serbia,
Montenegro, and Albania, and later of Bulgaria and Greece, will disappear, de factoif
not in appearance, and both materially and morally they will become the slaves ofthe
central empires. If the Balkan League could be reconstituted, Germany and Austria
would never reach Salonika or Constantinople.
2
The Balkan Peninsula in Classical Times
400 B.C. - A.D. 500.
In the earlier historical times the whole ofthe eastern part ofthe Balkan peninsula
between the Danube and the Aegean was known as Thracia, while the western part
(north ofthe forty-first degree of latitude) was termed Illyricum; the lower basin ofthe
river Vardar (the classical Axius) was called Macedonia. A number ofthe tribal and
personal names ofthe early Illyrians and Thracians have been preserved. Philip of
Macedonia subdued Thrace in the fourth century B.C. and in 342 founded the city of
Philippopolis. Alexander's first campaign was devoted to securing control ofthe
peninsula, but during the Third century B.C. Thrace was invaded from the north and
laid waste by the Celts, who had already visited Illyria. The Celts vanished by the end
of that century, leaving a few place-names to mark their passage. The city of Belgrade
was known until the seventh century A.D. by its Celtic name of Singidunum. Naissus,
the modern Nish, is also possibly of Celtic origin. It was towards 230 B.C. that Rome
came into contact with Illyricum, owing to the piratical proclivities of its inhabitants,
but for a long time it only controlled the Dalmatian coast, so called after the Delmati
or Dalmati, an Illyrian tribe. The reason for this was the formidable character ofthe
mountains of Illyria, which run in several parallel and almost unbroken lines the
whole length ofthe shore ofthe Adriatic and have always formed an effective barrier
to invasion from the west. The interior was only very gradually subdued by the
Romans after Macedonia had been occupied by them in 146 B.C. Throughout the first
century B.C. conflicts raged with varying fortune between the invaders and all the
native races living between the Adriatic and the Danube. They were attacked both
from Aquileia in the north and from Macedonia in the south, but it was not till the
early years of our era that the Danube became the frontier ofthe Roman Empire.
In the year A.D. 6 Moesia, which included a large part ofthe modern kingdom of
Serbia and the northern half of that of Bulgaria between the Danube and the Balkan
range (the classical Haemus), became an imperial province, and twenty years later
Thrace, the country between the Balkan range and the Aegean, was incorporated in
the empire, and was made a province by the Emperor Claudius in A.D. 46. The
province of Illyricum or Dalmatia stretched between the Save and the Adriatic, and
Pannonia lay between the Danube and the Save. In 107 A.D. the Emperor Trajan
conquered the Dacians beyond the lower Danube, and organized a province of Dacia
out of territory roughly equivalent to the modern Wallachia and Transylvania, This
trans-Danubian territory did not remain attached to the empire for more than a
hundred and fifty years; but within the river line a vast belt of country, stretching from
the head ofthe Adriatic to the mouths ofthe Danube on the Black Sea, was
Romanized through and through. The Emperor Trajan has been called the
Charlemagne ofthe Balkan peninsula; all remains are attributed to him (he was
nicknamed the Wallflower by Constantine the Great), and his reign marked the zenith
of Roman power in this part ofthe world. The Balkan peninsula enjoyed the benefits
of Roman civilization for three centuries, from the first to the fourth, but from the
second century onwards the attitude ofthe Romans was defensive rather than
offensive. The war against the Marcomanni under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in
the second half of this century, was the turning-point. Rome was still victorious, but
no territory was added to the empire. The third century saw the southward movement
of the Germanic peoples, who took the place ofthe Celts. The Goths invaded the
peninsula, and in 251 the Emperor Decius was killed in battle against them near
Odessus on the Black Sea (the modern Varna). The Goths reached the outskirts of
Thessalonica (Salonika), but were defeated by the Emperor Claudius at Naissus (Nish)
in 269; shortly afterwards, however, the Emperor Aurelian had definitively to
relinquish Dacia to them. The Emperor Diocletian, a native of Dalmatia, who reigned
from 284 to 305, carried out a redistribution ofthe imperial provinces. Pannonia and
western Illyria, or Dalmatia, were assigned to the prefecture of Italy, Thrace to that of
the Orient, while the whole centre ofthe peninsula, from the Danube to the
Peloponnese, constituted the prefecture of Illyria, with Thessalonica as capital. The
territory to the north ofthe Danube having been lost, what is now western Bulgaria
was renamed Dacia, while Moesia, the modern kingdom of Serbia, was made very
much smaller. Praevalis, or the southern part of Dalmatia, approximately the modern
Montenegro and Albania, was detached from that province and added to the prefecture
of Illyria. In this way the boundary between the province of Dalmatia and the Balkan
peninsula proper ran from near the lake of Scutari in the south to the river Drinus (the
modern Drina), whose course it followed till the Save was reached in the north.
An event of far-reaching importance in the following century was the elevation by
Constantine the Great ofthe Greek colony of Byzantium into the imperial city of
Constantinople in 325. This century also witnessed the arrival ofthe Huns in Europe
from Asia. They overwhelmed the Ostrogoths, between the Dnieper and the Dniester,
in 375, and the Visigoths, settled in Transylvania and the modern Rumania, moved
southwards in sympathy with this event. The Emperor Valens lost his life fighting
against these Goths in 378 at the great battle of Adrianople (a city established in
Thrace by the Emperor Hadrian in the second century). His successor, the Emperor
Theodosius, placated them with gifts and made them guardians ofthe northern
frontier, but at his death, in 395, they overran and devastated the entire peninsula, after
which they proceeded to Italy. After the death ofthe Emperor Theodosius the empire
was divided, never to be joined into one whole again. The dividing line followed that,
already mentioned, which separated the prefecture of Italy from those of Illyria and
the Orient, that is to say, it began in the south, on the shore ofthe Adriatic near the
Bocche di Cattaro, and went due north along the valley ofthe Drina till the confluence
of that river with the Save. It will be seen that this division had consequences which
have lasted to the present day. Generally speaking, the Western Empire was Latin in
language and character, while the Eastern was Greek, though owing to the importance
of the Danubian provinces to Rome from the military point of view, and the lively
intercourse maintained between them, Latin influence in them was for a long time
stronger than Greek. Its extent is proved by the fact that the people of modern
Rumania are partly, and their language very largely, defended from those ofthe
legions and colonies ofthe Emperor Trajan.
Latin influence, shipping, colonization, and art were always supreme on the eastern
shores ofthe Adriatic, just as were those of Greece on the shores ofthe Black Sea.
The Albanians even, descendants ofthe ancient Illyrians, were affected by the
supremacy ofthe Latin language, from which no less than a quarter of their own
meagre vocabulary is derived; though driven southwards by the Romans and
northwards by the Greeks, they have remained in their mountain fastnesses to this day,
impervious to any ofthe civilizations to which they have been exposed.
Christianity spread to the shores ofthe peninsula very early; Macedonia and Dalmatia
were the parts where it was first established, and it took some time to penetrate into
the interior. During the reign of Diocletian numerous martyrs suffered for the faith in
the Danubian provinces, but with the accession of Constantine the Great persecution
came to an end. As soon, however, as the Christians were left alone, they started
persecuting each other, and during the fourth century the Arian controversy re-echoed
throughout the peninsula.
[...]... and strength ofthe tide of Slav immigration All along the coast, from the mouth ofthe Danube to the head ofthe Adriatic, the Greek and Roman names have been retained though places have often been given alternative names by the Slavonic settlers Thrace, especially the southeastern part, and Albania have the fewest Slavonic place-names In Macedonia and Lower Moesia (Bulgaria) very few classical names... in 1081 and the passage ofthe crusaders in 1096 The wholesale depredations ofthe latter naturally made the inhabitants ofthe Balkan peninsula anything but sympathetically disposed towards their cause One ofthe results of all this turmoil and ofthe heavy hand ofthe Greeks was a great increase in the vitality ofthe Bogomil heresy already referred to; it became a refuge for patriotism and an outlet... enumerated It is the tendency of Bulgarian historians, who scornfully point to the fact that the historyof Russia only dates from the ninth century, to exaggerate the antiquity of their own and to claim as early a date as possible for the authentic appearance of their ancestors on the kaleidoscopic stage ofthe Balkan theatre They are also unwilling to admit that they were anticipated by the Slavs; they prefer... the fall ofthe Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1261, the Hungarians, already masters of Transylvania, combined with the Greeks against Constantine; the latter called the Tartars of southern Russia, at this time at the height of their power, to his help and was victorious, but as a result of his diplomacy the Tartars henceforward played an important part in the Bulgarian welter Then Constantine married,... far as Epirus and Thessaly 3 The Arrival ofthe Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula, A. D 500-650 The Balkan peninsula, which had been raised to a high level of security and prosperity during the Roman dominion, gradually relapsed into barbarism as a result of these endless invasions; the walled towns, such as Salonika and Constantinople, were the only safe places, and the country became waste and desolate... managed to discount the centrifugal tendencies of the feudal nobles, as Simeon and Samuel had done Other discouraging factors wore the permeation ofthe Church and State by Byzantine influence, the lack ofa large standing army, the spread of the anarchic Bogomil heresy, and the fact that the bulk of the Slav population had no desire for foreign adventure or national aggrandizement 8 The Rise and Fall... who had promoted them; the barbarians invariably stayed longer and did more damage than had been bargained for, and usually left some of their number behind as unwelcome settlers In this way the ethnological map of the Balkan peninsula became ever more variegated To the Tartar settlers were added colonies of Armenians and Vlakhs by various emperors The last touch was given by the arrival ofthe Normans... recognize the Patriarch of Constantinople The same year an attempt was made to bring the Church of Bulgaria under that of Rome, but, owing to Russian opposition, proved abortive In 1870, the growing agitation having at last alarmed the Turks, the Bulgarian Exarchate was established The Bulgarian Church was made free and national and was to be under an Exarch who should reside at Constantinople (Bulgaria being... were gradually assimilated by the inhabitants of that province, who were the descendants ofthe Roman soldiers and colonists, and the ancestors ofthe modern Rumanians, but the fact that Slavonic influence there was strong is shown by the large number of words of Slavonic origin contained in the Rumanian language [Illustration: THE BALKAN PENINSULA ETHNOLOGICAL] Place-names are a good index ofthe extent... Scandinavian (Varangian) adventurers who came and took charge of their affairs at Kiev Similarly the Southern Slavs were never of themselves able to form a united community, conscious of its aim and capable of persevering in its attainment The Slavs did not invade the Balkan peninsula alone but in the company ofthe Avars, a terrible and justly dreaded nation, who, like the Huns, were of Asiatic (Turkish .
THE BALKANS
A HISTORY OF BULGARIA—SERBIA—
GREECE—RUMANIA—TURKEY
THE BALKANS
A HISTORY OF BULGARIA—SERBIA—
GREECE—RUMANIA—TURKEY
BY NEVILL FORBES, ARNOLD. lower basin of the
river Vardar (the classical Axius) was called Macedonia. A number of the tribal and
personal names of the early Illyrians and Thracians